EU will fund car, hospital and airport IT security research

Smart cars, airports and hospitals are likely to increasingly become targets for hackers -- and now the European Union's Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) has them in its sights too.

The agency has added intelligent transport systems and smart health services to its remit for 2016. It plans to analyse the security risks inherent in their communications networks, and wants governments to take up its recommendations for securing them by 2017, it said Monday.

The research will focus on the problems posed by the introduction of smart objects and machine-to-machine communications to replace humans in airport supply chains, whether that's for the delivery of spare parts to aircraft, luggage to conveyor belts or bottled water to airport stores.